Exhibition

Live HD pictures are streamed to the osprey exhibition area, allowing a great indoor experience offering close up views of the ospreys recorded via our live nest cameras. The centre is fully accessible.

Opening Times

Although Whinlatter Forest is open all year round, the Osprey Exhibition is staffed from 10am until 5pm during the main period that the ospreys are in the UK (March 30th to August 31st), when Lake District Osprey Project staff will be on hand to answer questions and give information on the birds’ behaviour and other wildlife to be seen in the area.

From Penrith and Workington there are rail links to and from the west coast to the mainline between Glasgow, Carlisle and London.

‘Pay on exit’ car and coach parking is available at Whinlatter.

Other Activities At Whinlatter

In addition to the Osprey exhibition, Siskins Cafe offers delicious home made food in comfortable surroundings with great views of Grisedale Pike.

School parties are welcome. Many combine a visit to see the ospreys with a Ranger led learning session with Classrooms in the Forest.

Other facilities include a children’s play area, outdoor picnic area and the start of a number of waymarked trails around the Forest. In addition Whinlatter offers a fantastic Go Ape Course and the Lake District’s highest single track mountain bike trails . Whinlatter is fully accessible to people with reduced mobility.

If you have a comment to make about the Lake District Osprey Project, the viewpoints or the exhibition please contact Nathan Fox by email or phone 017687 78469.

Recent Posts

With only a couple more weeks to go with incubation our female bird has surpassed expectations in her commitment to brooding. Bathed in bright sunlight and open to every breeze that blows she has been diligently turning the eggs and keeping them alternately warm or shaded by lifting her body up or snuggling down. Unring, as we would expect has been keeping them both supplied with fish as well as taking his turn with daytime sitting.

As Spring warmth has been seeping into the bones of the earth insects are now waking up or hatching out in their myriads. A dull rumble filled the air late one afternoon last week – another Chinook approaching up the valley perhaps? But no, the rumble took on a more sizzling tone, reverberating closer at hand and directly above. For a moment or two the sun lost its radiance and our black shadows faded as if a cloud was passing. We all stared up as a swarm of bees undulated through the tops of the pines, each individual weaving its own way to avoid collision with its sisters and the waving branches, following their Queen to a new home.

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay. A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon. A swarm in July isn’t worth a fly.

Sadly, they passed too quickly for us to follow, so we missed out on the load of hay!